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Mark Cavendish’s bid for the yellow jersey ended in a heap as the Manxman tumbled to the tarmac in a dramatic conclusion to the opening stage of the 101st Tour de France in Harrogate.

Cavendish was bidding for a 26th Tour stage win of his career in his mother’s home town and a first yellow jersey, but collided with Australian Simon Gerrans in the final 500 metres and was seen clutching his shoulder and midrift as he rolled over the line.

Marcel Kittel (Giant-Shimano) won the 190.5-kilometre opening stage from Leeds to claim the yellow jersey on the opening day for a second successive year.

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City will open a sixth successive season on the road following the the publication of the 2014-15 Conference South fixtures.

They will head to Canvey Island on Saturday 9 August to face Concord Rangers, coincidently the same location they completed their 2013-14 campaign with a 2-0 win. The first visitors to Twerton Park are Basingstoke Town on Tuesday 12 August before Chelmsford City head to the West Country the following Saturday. Weston Super Mare provide the usual Christmas and New Year opposition and the regular season will come to a close at Staines Town on Saturday 25 April. The full fixture list can be found at the Results & Fixtures link above.

The draw for the 2014-15 Somerset Premier Cup has given City a 1st Round trip to Radstock Town. The game will take place the week commencing 29 September 2014.

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For the first time since the Donington Park event in 2013, MG/Triple Eight have taken the lead in the Manufacturer/Constructor standings ahead of Honda Team Dynamics.

It has been an incredibly close battle between the four manufacturer-backed cars so far this year, and now MG have moved ahead by just a single point.

With Honda having taken the past four consecutive Manufacturerâ€™s titles, MG drivers Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff are on a mission in this, the third year of the MG6 racer, to snatch the crown from the new-for-2014 Honda Civic Tourers. The hatchback Civic model is a proven package, but with the switch to the larger Tourer this year there have been some new challenges for Team Dynamics to overcome. It didnâ€™t take long, however, for the car to take its first podium in the hands of Matt Neal in the very first race of the year at Brands Hatch. Podiums soon became wins, as Shedden triumphed in the final race of the day at Donington Park, but the Pershoreâ€“based squad hasnâ€™t had things entirely its own way.

Two podiums for Plato at Brands were followed up by a dominant display by Triple Eight three weeks later at Donington. A front-row lockout for Plato and Tordoff followed by 1-2s in both races was mightily impressive, but a strong race three for Honda just kept the Japanese marque in front.

With both Thruxton and Oulton Park balanced between the two works teams, Honda held a slender advantage coming into the BTCCâ€™s sole trip to north Yorkshire. The MG pair had been fast at Croft in 2013 and were confident ahead of the weekend, and while they didnâ€™t quite get the results anticipated, it was still enough to move them ahead in the race for manufacturer honours.

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Marc Marquez produced a masterclass in difficult conditions at the Iveco Daily TT Assen to make it eight wins from eight races in 2014.

In a race which started after a delay due to wet conditions Marquez judged the 26-lap challenge to perfection, running with Dovizioso at the front in the early stages and asserting his authority as the riders changed to dry set-up machines on the seventh lap.

Marquez eventually clinched the win by 6.7s seconds to become the first rider since the great Giacomo Agostini in 1971 to win the first eight premier-class races of the year.

Dovizioso stepped onto the rostrum for the second time in 2014, with Pedrosa completing the podium after holding off the pursuing Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) for several laps. Espargaro rode well to hold fourth, having started on pole on the â€˜Openâ€™ Forward Yamaha.

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) took fifth having shown great pace in the second half of the race, his problem being a late decision to swap back from slicks to wets at the start. Rossi started from pit lane on wets, therefore, and recovered considerable ground before and after eventually the swap back to slicks.

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Formula E is a new FIA single-seater championship and the world’s first fully-electric racing series.

Commencing in September 2014 through to June 2015, the championship will compete in the heart of 10 of the world’s leading cities – including London, Beijing and Miami – racing around their iconic landmarks. For the inaugural season, 10 teams, each with two drivers, will go head-to-head creating a unique and exciting racing series designed to appeal to a new generation of motorsport fans.

It represents a vision for the future of the motor industry over the coming decades, serving as a framework for R&D around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting sustainability.

From season two, Formula E will operate as an ‘open championship’, allowing teams and manufacturers the opportunity to showcase their own electrical energy innovations. Working to the technical specifications set out by the FIA, teams will focus their efforts on improving and developing battery technology in the hope this will filter into the everyday electric vehicle market.

The championship centres around three core values of Energy, Environment and Entertainment and is a fusion of engineering, technology, sport, science, design, music and entertainment – all combining to drive the change towards an electric future.

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The K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Series once again provided a couple of thrilling races with ex-Stock Hatch racers to the fore.

In the first race Jeff Humphries took a convincing lead from his pole position. Local man Martin Ward, who had a disastrous weekend at Silverstone, was able to hold off Matt Fincham despite several challenges throughout the course of the race.

Ben Seybold moved ahead of Patrick Fletcher in the opening stages of the race for fourth position and was always in touching distance of the podium positions but was never able to make it into the top three. Fletcher also fell behind Mark Hammersley on the seventh lap of the race and therefore only managed to finish in sixth position.

The inaugural round of the new for 2014 K-Tec Racing Clio 182 Series provided the two of the best races of the day with ex-Stock Hatch champions Patrick Fletcher and Jeff Humphries fighting hard to take the first victories.

Mark Armstrong, who put his Clio on pole position for both races, was unable to compete in either race due to an engine failure in qualifying which meant that Caterham graduate Dan Livingstone was on a lonely front row.

A storming start from the outside of the second row put 2011 Stock Hatch champion, Patrick Fletcher into the lead at Copse. He pulled clear of the pack by a full second on the first lap ahead of Mark Hammersley and Livingstone. However, it was Jeff Humphries who started in sixth that would work his way up into second place by lap three as he prepared to hunt down Fletcher. Humphries, who won the Stock Hatch title in 2009, whittled down a two second gap to challenge Fletcher but was unable to find a way ahead of him.